This "compendium of information on the occult sciences, occult personalities, psychic science, demonology, spiritism, and mysticism" was one of a kind when it was first published in 1920 and is still considered the best in its field today. Spence organizes a world's worth of magic -- from "Ab" (a magical month in the ancient Semitic calendar) to "Zulu witch-finders" -- into 2,500 dictionary-style entries that explore concepts and personalities both familiar (Freemasonry, Morgan le Fay) and obscure: palingenesy (a process by which plants or vegetables are destroyed and then "resurrected"), Leonora Galigai (a 17th-century Italian aristocrat who was burned as a witch). A delight for devotees of the weird and the strange, and a valuable resource for students of mythology and the evolution of scientific thought, this important volume is at home in the libraries of all book lovers. Scottish journalist and folklorist LEWIS SPENCE (1874 -1955) was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and Vice-President of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society. He published more than 40 works on mythology and the occult, including History of Atlantis, An Introduction to Mythology, and Myth and Ritual in Dance, Game and Rhyme.

"Written by a practitioner of various Western occult traditions -- the author has a background in druidism, freemasonry, cabala, Louisiana hoodoo, and is a certified tarot grandmaster -- this is an authoritative and engaging reference on the occult. Cross-references lead to relevant entries, and sources for further reading are often suggested (a bibliography of these sources is included at the end of the volume). Extensively researched yet concise, this encyclopedia will provide a wide range of users with information on both occult history and current practice."--"Reference that rocks," American Libraries, May 2005.

Six hundred and sixty-six entries, along with hundreds of illustrations, on such topics as the Abominable Snowman, astrologer Jeane Dixon, and the monster of Loch Ness expose the cranks, charlatans, and myths of past and present.

To those who will only believe in phenomena which are reproducible at will, it is easy to answer them: you do not manufacture comets, meteorites, magnetic disturbances due to sunspots, and yet you observe them. Metapsychical phenomena are registered in the records of Occultism. That is all. The only thing to do is to check them. But the right remains to unite them amongst themselves by an attempt at a general explanation. The study of the Invisible, of the forces which it conceals, of the human fluids, is yet but at its dawn. Patience ! To deny is absurd. To observe is scientific. To think is wise. This is what I have done. It is what you will do after having read this book, the well arranged summing up of vast reading and lengthy thought.

Since its intitial publication in 1920, this book has remained the supreme arbiter in all matters of dispute concerning the occult. Contains 2,500 entries and articles summarizing the entire history of the subject.