A Memoir of the Occult, 1966-1989
Reviewed by Freeman
[Snip] This book records the author’s personal and spiritual quest from the psychedelic years through 1989, when a certain stability was achieved with the end of litigation over Crowley copyrights, and the establishment of the author as an independent professional in publishing and book production (hence his ability to get his own book produced so well). This book also has its own website.
A large part of my reaction to this book comes from finding myself in it. James Wasserman was born in 1948, I in 1950; we were psychonauts during college (but he did enough psychedelics for five of me); we both had significant interests in an Eastern tradition (Sant Mat for him, Zen for me); and we both landed in Western magic and political libertarianism. Wasserman, of course, is Thelemic, where I am decidedly not.
You’re just going to have to be interested in “the occult” in some capacity to want to read all of this book, but the subtitle warned you of that. As long as you have some sympathy for alternative spirituality, you will easily “find yourself” in this book, as I did. I haven’t heard a reaction from any of my Thelemic friends yet; I imagine they might feel as if they were gazing into a dark mirror.
What’s been said…