Does anyone know any good resources, ideally books or websites, that would give me some idea of the Satanism/black magick scene in the UK from around 1910 to 1960, 1970-ish?
I have a blood relative (deceased) who was an old-school master of the Black Arts and apart from reading Dennis Wheatley’s novels, I’m entirely unfamiliar with the whole scene: my “Uncle” (the actual relationship’s a bit more distant) was close to being a contemporary of Crowley’s but never met him, though he did briefly meet LaVey when he travelled to the USA.
He was (and is) right into dark stuff, not the lighter tones of theosophy or spiritualism, though he was familiar with that.
Obviously I’m talking to him about this, but factual information can be difficult to receive through these routes and also I’d quite like to do the work myself of studying and not just bug him with pretty basic questions - he lived a very long, happy and successful life against the odds and I respect him more, the more I learn about him.
So far he’s told me he didn’t practice evocation of specific demons (such as Belial) - instead he called up The Master (his term) and committed the allocation of duties to him, and that he had a close-knit circle or coven he sometimes did events with, but most of his summonings were done alone…
No-one I’ve contacted for information has the faintest idea he was involved in this and I would never have guessed, except he contacted me several times through dreams, until the penny dropped and I deliberately called him up…
So anyway, if anyone knows any good biographies or books about British black magick etc., anything about what was going on that era, please let me know so I can track it down and hopefully make Uncle happy, and carry on his traditions in some way!
I want to try and make the next Solstice special for him if I can, and maybe do a ritual together, some kind of dark work…