alchemy (23) ceremonial magic (27) checked (16) China (14) Demonology (24) divination (38) Enochian (27) esoteric (29) feng shui (94) geomancy (33) geometry (22) Goetia (27) Grimoire (92) grimoires (29) hardcover (17) limited edition (16) magic (87) magick (94) math (31) new (15) non-fiction (55) occult (128) occultism (26) reference (28) ritual magic (18) sacred geometry (14) signed (16) spirituality (26) SWCM (15) to-read (51)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Skinner, Stephen
Birthdate: 1948-03-22
Gender: male
Education: University of Newcastle (PhD|Classics)
University of Sydney (BA|Geography, English, Ancient Greek Philosophy)
Sydney Grammar School
Trinity Grammar School, Sydney
Occupations: publisher
author
lecturer
feng shui practitioner
researcher
Organizations: International Feng Shui Association (Singapore)
Short biography: Stephen Skinner began his career as a Geography lecturer and magazine publisher, but his long term interest has always been Western magic.

During the 1970s he was the driving force behind Askin Publishers, producing a number of classic magical works by Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, and others. During the 1970s he co-wrote many books with Francis King, including the still popular Techniques of High Magic. Also with Francis King he wrote Nostradamus. His interest in prophecy stimulated by this book, he went on to write the best selling Millennium Prophecies.

Stephen is credited with bringing the art of Feng Shui to the West, and in 1976 he wrote the Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui, which was the first English book on feng shui in the 20th century.

Stephen has written more than 35 books, which have been published worldwide in 28 different languages. These books have had introductions by such diverse people as Colin Wilson, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, and Jimmy Choo, shoe designer to the stars.

Stephen lives in Singapore.
Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
Places of residence: Singapore
London, England, UK
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Map Location: United Kingdom

Members

Reviews

Featured Recent Thumbs

All Ratings
3
½2
2
½1
3
1
½1
3
No Rating

17 reviews

endersreads 177 reviews

KISS Guide to Feng Shui (Keep It Simple Series) by Stephen Skinner

Despite it's rise in popularity with all the Disney Mind Control patients who propose to entertain and carry out Kabbalistic rituals on stage, Feng Shui has enough historicity to keep an intellectual busy for quite a while. This "KISS" (horrible name, horrible) version is quite a nice introductory to ancient eastern geomancy, or to the Tao of Heaven and Earth. We take our translation of Feng Shui from Pu's "Book of Burial"--Wind, Water. Pu's words were much more eloquent. The book is filled show more with pictures and tid-bits of delictable datum. It's quite dumbed-down, so American Pharmacuetical customers can try to understand where best to keep their hordes of material sh*t they buy at Wal-Mart. The only ones who can truly practice Feng Shui are the lords of Capitalism and Communism. Everyone else doesn't have room for anything but a money toad and desk Foo dog. I find the pics of ancient burial sites most exciting. At most times I find the author's neo-paganism irritating. show less

Sep 19, 20081 other review

herebedragons 1,887 reviews

Flying Star Feng Shui by Stephen Skinner

#53, 2004

I've written a lot about my work with this book in my Tarot Journal, reginadibastoni, so this review will be fairly concise. I found it to be a very informative and useful book, although at times I felt overwhelmed when reading it. The author tended to present a bunch of theoretical information and then details of evaluating specific situations before having us do the practical stuff so we could apply the evaluations to real life. As a consequence, I felt lost at times, and somewhat show more discouraged. By the end, though, he'd pulled everything together, and has a lot of great information in the appendices. I would not recommend this as a first book on Feng Shui, as he goes pretty quickly through the basic stuff. (I enjoyed this author's "KISS Guide to Feng Shui" as a starter book). Having read several other books on the subject previously, though, I enjoyed this book, and it is certainly the most complete treatment of flying the stars that I've seen yet. I did get a lot of valuable information and insight from it. Now, I just need to go through my home and implement some of the changes I want to make. show less

Jan 17, 2007

JBD1 2,919 reviews

The Voynich Manuscript: The World's Most Mysterious and Esoteric Codex by Stephen Skinner

Not the best full-color facsimile of the Voynich Manuscript out there, but the introduction provides a decent introduction to the thing, and the addition of quire diagrams with each image is useful.

Dec 29, 20233 other reviews

herebedragons 1,887 reviews

KISS Guide to Feng Shui by Stephen Skinner

#34, 2004

Hooray! Finally, a book on the subject that I can recommend with no hesitations whatsoever. I thought this was a fantastic book. Clearly written, easy to read, with great graphics and charts which often really helped me to understand the material. This book does not go into some of the more complex areas of feng shui (like detailed 8 Houses, or Flying Stars), but what it does cover it covers thoroughly and well. I came away from this book with lots of specific strategies for changes show more I can make *right now* to improve the feng shui of my home. The book also has a section devoted to specific remedies for each of the five phases (something I felt was missing from the Idiot's Guide), and also a section on furniture placement for each room of the house. After the reading I've done so far, this is the book I would recommend to anyone wanting to get started with feng shui. show less

Jan 17, 20071 other review

See More Reviews