The Occult

Rating:
Summary: Nostradamus and company
Review: "Faculty X is simply that latent power that human beings possess to reach beyond the present," Colin Wilson writes in the first chapter of "The Occult", his history of magic and mysteries throughout the centuries. In some people, mystics and poets (the book is dedicated to Robert Graves), that power breaks loose from its latency and becomes startling manifestations: prophecy, defiance of gravity, or what might be called behaving badly on a large scale. On the positive side, Faculty X is essential to intellectual evolution. Constructed in three major parts and running to nearly 600 pages, "The Occult" covers everything from the Kaballah to haunted houses. Needless to say, it is packed with fascinating individuals: Paracelsus, Cagliostro, Mesmer, Gurdjieff. Aleister Crowley hogs a whole chapter to himself. And,inevitably, there is Nostradamus. The 16th Century seer's reputation has been cheapened by super-market rags and, granted, the quatrains are vague and can be construed in different ways. But when Nostradamus pinpoints the insignificant village of Varennes as the cause of "tempeste, feu, sang, tranche {storm, fire, blood, chopping-off}" one must be impressed. Then there is the quatrain that has fueled so much post 9/11 controversy: "Like the great king of the Angolmois/The year 1999, seventh month/The Great king of terror will descend from the sky/At this time, Mars will reign for the good cause". I'm not entering the fray. However ... Detractors (ignoring the fact that he came astonishingly close) point out that Nostradamus was both two years off and two months off, but these are consistent miscalculations. Without doubt, terror descended from the sky. (Bear in mind, "The Occult" was published in 1971 and its author read terror descending from the sky as a prophecy of the hydrogen bomb.) Mr Wilson points out that "Angolmois" is an anagram for "Mongolais {Mongolian}" (anagrams are common in Nostradamus), and that "the great king of the Angolmois" is meant to be Genghis Khan. The Turkish Empire of Genghis Khan included what is now Iran. And "Mars will reign for the good cause"? I believe our government's bellicose patriotism speaks for itself. Mr Wilson himself becomes a prognosticator when he writes: "Suppose someone could invent some occult method whereby I could actually be present at the execution of Charles I, or watch the boy Mozart playing his own concerto to Marie Antoinette, or glimpse the face of Jack the Ripper as he walks under a street lamp." I wonder what Mr Wilson thinks of virtual reality's accomplishments. The chapter "The Realm of the Senses" concentrates on such diverse cases as Daniel Dunglas Home, who astounded the Victorian era with his telekinetic exploits and Bishop Pike, who communicated with his dead son, a suicide, before he himself came to a strange end. Mr Wilson seems less impressed with claims of reincarnation -- e.g., Bridey Murphy -- but finally admits: "We had better acknowledge that we are little better than children, and adopt some of the observant open-mindedness that is characteristic of children." As he states at one point: "The whole subject of the occult is full of 'absurdities' that offend the logical mind and yet cannot be dismissed as fantasies." A child-like acceptance and imagination. Perhaps that's what is needed to cultivate Faculty X, which Colin Wilson states in the conclusion of this absorbing history is so important to mankind's future.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial
Review: I have read this book in portuguese many years ago, and didn't know it is now out of print. Collin Wilson has probraly read a lot to write this book, but to anyone at least a little into the occult it is clear that he have no ideia what he is talking about.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read
Review: If you want a fairly objective view of the occult and its origins, this is the book. I found it really refreshing because it made an attempt to explain the psychology behind much of the ritual and religion that we, as human beings, cling to. It did not discount the development of the human soul or claim that it was non-existent, yet did not go too far in the direction of the effusively new-age either. A good read. I lent it to someone too, never got it back.