A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult

This is one of Gary Lachman's lighter weight excursions into the history of the esoteric but it is well worth having in the Library.

In effect, it is a series of suggestive and rather entertaining biographies from the Enlightenment world of Swedenborg, Mesmer and Cagliostro to the modernist occultism of the much less well known Daumal, Milosz and Lowry.

There are just over 40 of these pen portraits under five occultist headings (Enlightenment, Romantic, Satanic, Fin de Siecle and Modernist), with good short introductions to each section. It is a book that can be usefully 'dipped into' whenever one of the 40 pops up somewhere else.

The last quarter or so is a smattering of original texts, perhaps somewhat hard to fathom out of their full show more context and in an order that may have its own occult meaning but which passed me by, but useful to have available nonetheless.

Certainly, for all its lack of depth, this is well recommended as an enjoyable reference source and the starting point for further study into a cultural phenomenon that still acts as a strong undercurrent in European life and literature. show less

In theory, this book tracks the influence of "the occult" oon literature, art, science…

Needless to say, that's a slightly difficult task – by nature, and by definition, "the occult" is hidden.

Having said that, I enjoyed this book, and found it useful. There are times when the writer is more credulous than I am (I'm not at all sure I believe as much about some of the historical figures as he does), but not overly so – this is still within the realms of "read with some confidence".

For those who are new to the area, this book might assume more knowledge than is comfortable – for those who know the area well, the book will be vaguely interesting but will tell them little new. For those who have some background, but not much – it show more might just be a gold mine.

It has a serious lack, however, in not having an index – one must trawl through to find entries. Admittedly, these are fairly well marked but the lack of an index reduces the usefulness of the book greatly. show less

My full review can be found here.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it an enthralling, well-researched primer on the history of the occult. It is worth noting that this book focuses primarily upon writers rather than scientists or pure magicians. It is also worth noting that the latter half of the book provides a rich sampling of sections from the most pertinent texts mentioned. It's a fun exercise to read the samples while focusing upon the author's section.