Showing results by narrator "Shea Taylor" in All Categories

All that we achieve and all that we fail to achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts. “Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh) As Allen himself describes, “It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances…and it can be carried in the pocket.”

In 1665, London was struck by the bubonic plague, an epidemic that was the last major instance of the bubonic plague in England. This instance of the plague killed 100,000 people over a year and a half, and was transmitted through rats that ran through the city. A Journal of the Plague Year was presented as an eyewitness account of the epidemic through the eyes of Londoners.

Anthony Trollope’s The Small House at Allington is the fifth book in a series called The Chronicles of Barsetshire but is the most well-known of the series due to its writing quality and timeline placement within the series. The novel follows the Dales, a family who occupies a large estate. Christopher is the owner of the estate, and allows his widowed sister and her children to live on a small house on the property. The novel largely follows the children, Lilian and Isabella, as they are courted and try to find their place among society.

Don Alvaro, a young but wise man, invokes Satan in a goetic-style magical ritual. Upon seeing the young Alvaro, Beelzebub falls in love with him and assumes the appearance of a beautiful young woman. In the journey that unfolds, Satan, disguised as a woman, tries to seduce Alvaro who rejects his advances lest he lose his precious virginity. 

French literary figure Charles Baudelaire was a member of the infamous Club of the Hashish-Eaters, a Parisian literary group dedicated to the exploration of altered states of consciousness, principally through the use of hashish. The Poem of Hashish was first published in 1850. This is Aleister Crowley’s translation of it, from 1895. Baudelaire was part of the French art movement known as saymbolism, which acted as a reaction to realism and placed a lot of emphasis on the power of dreams and the imagination as tools for communicating ideals through symbols. 

When Sir Peter Pendragon, a retired pilot of the Great War, meets the free-spirited Louise, a devotee of the mysterious occultist Basil King Lamus, the two immediately get married and set off across Europe, on a drug-fueled honeymoon of heroin and cocaine. Eventually, in an attempt to break free of their recently acquired habit, the newlyweds find their way to the Abbey of Thelema in Italy, where the adults perform invocations to the sun and the children freely recite passages from the Book of the Law. 

The unifying factor of this collection is that, without exception, every author included here was in some way or another involved with or interested in the occult. In some cases, they were members of an occult organization, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, or similar such groups. Others simply had a strong personal interest in the subject matter or practiced some form of the esoteric sciences in private.

The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories is the third book by Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, who is considered to be a major influence on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others. 

The Smoky God is a classic tale from the genre of hollow Earth or subterranean literature. A once-favorite tale of Amazing Stories publisher Ray Palmer, The Smoky God is the (purportedly true) tale of two Norwegian fishermen Jens and Olaf Jansen, who sailed their fishing vessel into the inner Earth in the year 1829. While in the center of the Earth, they find an entire society and meet a race and of advanced giants.  

British author Algernon Blackwood was a prolific writer who is usually remembered for his numerous ghost stories; however, he also wrote on many other supernatural themes. This collection of 13 stories includes: "The Wendigo", "The Olive", "The Goblin's Collection", "The Sea Fit", "Ancient Lights", "The Prayer", "The Wood of the Dead", "An Egyptian Hornet", "The Other Wing", "The Singular Death of Morton", "Entrance and Exit", "The Kit Bag", "The Damned".

An influential writer of supernatural fiction, Arthur Machen was born in Wales, in 1863. Many modern writers, such as Stephen King, have cited him as an inspiration. Perhaps most notably, though, was H.P. Lovecraft, who cites Machen as what led him down the road to eventually creating the Cthulhu Mythos. Presented here are two short stories and two novellas: "The Inmost Light", "A Fragment of Life", "The Shining Pyramid", and "The Terror."

In 1923, Achad published an edition of only 220 copies of a series of hymns or poetic devotions, in a manner slightly reminiscent of Crowley’s own emphatic style, aimed at adoring the Egyptian goddess Nuit (the number 220, being intended to align with the number of verses in Aleister Crowley’s own Book of the Law). Achad titled his own book, Thirty-One Hymns to the Star Goddess. 

Aleister Crowley left behind a literary legacy of hundreds of examples of his authorship, in diverse categories of writing. Collected here is a sampling of those writings.

Masonic author Carl Claudy presents 24 fictional tales or morality lessons in the form of advice being given to a younger mason by the Old Past Master. These are all on masonic topics such as: brotherly love, the ideal mason, geometry, masonic libraries, charity, Order of DeMolay, ancient landmarks, masonic failure, understanding, the masonry you make, symbols, and much more.

Machen's novella The Great God Pan is often cited as one of Lovecraft's most notable influences. In it, Dr. Raymond's ultimate goal is to devise a way to open the mind of man so that he may experience all the world has to offer. He calls this "seeing the great god Pan". After much study of the human mind, he devises an experiment that involves minor brain surgery. He performs this experiment on a young woman named Mary, but when she awakens she is terrified and mentally crippled.

Mr. Barnstaple is an average man living in English in the early 1900s. He is a journalist and after facing a stressful time at his newspaper decides to take a vacation. But his vacation goes from ordinary to extraordinary in an instant when his vehicle is transported to an alternate world, one called Utopia. 

These are the remaining fragments from the otherwise lost hymns of Hermes Trismegistus. Included are the gnostic hymns: "A Triple Trisagion", "A Hymn to All-Father God", "The Secret Hymnody", "A Hymn of Grace for Gnosis", and "A Song of Praise to the Aeon". Translated with additional commentary by esoteric scholar, G. R. S. Mead. 

When Taj sets a trap to catch his parents pretending to be the Tooth Fairy, he finds the real Tooth Fairy fried by the wire he’d connected to a couple nine-volt batteries. Instead of spending his summer vacation building robots and taking it easy, he’s pretending to fit in with kids who practically worship the holiday seasons. His only hope to return to normal life is to find a way to fit in, or discover who kidnapped the Tooth Fairy and bring them to justice.... 

Noah Derwin knows what it's like to be different. Being a 17-year-old kid in high school with blue hair, piercings, a mostly all black wardrobe, and an obsession with zombies and video games, he doesn't exactly blend in. But he never wanted to. His two dads raised him to always stay true to himself. Being gay in high school isn't exactly rainbows and butterflies, and Noah has definitely faced his fair share of bullies. Moving to Port Haven, Oregon opens up new possibilities for him, and he starts falling for the quiet, brown-eyed boy from his English class.

For two villainous nobles, it is a desperate means to an end. For two clever demons, it is one hell of a tax break. Henry and James have accidentally staked claim on the same soul. Elliot Dosett, the bitter and sickly son of a successful steel magnate, summoned a demon in hopes of solving his trouble with his father and inheriting the estate. Violet Clifton, his aunt, also summoned a demon in order to rid herself of a useless husband and take over the business he leaves behind.