Word: occultations
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Crystal Balls. A wave of fascination with the occult is noticeable throughout the country. It first became apparent a few years ago in the astrology boom, which continues. But today it also extends all the way from Satanism and witchcraft to the edges of science, as in Astronaut Edgar Mitchell's experiment in extrasensory perception from aboard Apollo 14. In this area, serious researchers in the field of parapsychology are increasingly interacting with devotees of such claimed occult gifts as prophecy and telepathy to probe the powers of the human mind. Indeed, the very word occult?denoting hidden knowledge, secret...
...good deal of the activity focuses around occult bookshops, which often offer subsidiary courses and services as well. One of the busiest is the Metaphysical Center in San Francisco. Its book department sells out 65% of its $25,000 stock every month. The center also presents tarot-card readings, daylong crash courses in palmistry (at $25 each), reincarnation workshops, and classes in astral projections, numerology and the esoteric Hebrew mystical system, the cabala. There is even a gift shop that sells
Conventional bookshops have felt the impact too. In Manhattan's courtly old Scribner Book Store on Fifth Avenue, books on the occult have completely taken over a counter that was once reserved for more traditional religious books (theological, inspirational and other churchly volumes are now relegated to a side bookcase...
Major publishers have issued dozens of hard-cover books on the occult and the related field of parapsychology in the past year. William Blatty's novel The Exorcist has been on the bestseller list for 52 weeks. The 1968 movie Rosemary's Baby?still the most terrifying of the lot?has spawned a series of occult successors, including, currently, The Possession of Joel Delaney and The Other. But the interest goes beyond books and movies: a growing number of colleges across the U.S. are offering courses on aspects of the occult...
Magog is a contemporary wizard -a civil servant whose vast power derives from the ritual manipulation of a bureaucracy that is every bit as arcane as any occult Druidic circle. With engaging arrogance he can honestly boast that "England waits at my out tray." As a highly informed fabulist, Sinclair romps through the same corridors of power that C.P. Snow shuffles through as an unimaginative realist. Myth, politics and culture are nimbly glossed as the author tells of Magog's rise to wealth and prestige. In 1948 Magog, as a specialist in foreign affairs, pays for his sack time...