This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. If you have been reading this blog consistently then you probably know that we never quite know what we might come across as we unpack a box from this collection. A case in point would be this…
A Beatnik Refuge
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Greenwich Village by Fred McDarrah is a history of the New York City neighborhood from its inception as Old Green Village through the 1960s. A detailed account from its time as a Dutch Colony to its incarnation as…
Medicine for the masses
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Ever wondered where to buy first aid supplies, medical equipment, or prescriptions if you lived in 19th-century Europe? Look no further than Guide Medical, translated as a Medical Guide to aid recovery in case of accidents or illness : instructions on performing medical prescriptions. Authored by H….
Farm Life
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Hey Beatnik! this is the Farm book by Stephen Gaskin is a tutorial on all things hippy and counterculture. Gaskin, founder of “The Farm” in Tennessee, was a famous leader in the Haight-Ashbury circles of San Francisco and…
Will the real Lewis de Claremont please stand up?
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Lewis de Claremont is credited as the author on several occult books from the early 20th-century including Legends of Incense, Herbs, and Oils. The image of an “artist’s conception of Lewis de Claremont in tunic and turban with…
Hypnotic huckster
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. In his book Practical lessons in hypnotism & magnetism, L.W. DeLaurence states that “Occult force” is simply personal magnetism that if well developed is able to control man, woman, child or beast at will. If a person possesses this occult force…
On the Money
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo collection. This edition of Jules Boissière’s Propos d’un intoxiqué has featured before in this space – see this post for a copy formerly owned by its illustrator, Tsuguharu Foujita. This copy, however, warrants revisiting the title. Every page of this 240-volume book…
The rituals of Illuminates of Thanateros
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Liber Null, a book by Pete Carroll, was originally written as a sourcebook for the magical organization, Illuminates of Thanateros. It includes spells and magical exercises ranging from mind control to transmogrification. A warning at the beginning of…
Shall I read your future?
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Death. Typically depicted as a skeleton with a sickle, one might suppose that if this card appeared in a tarot reading that you should prepare for an untimely demise, but it rarely signifies a physical death. Tarot card…
Crowley and the Beast
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. The Santo Domingo Collection continues to bolster Harvard’s library of works by author and occult leader Aleister Crowley. These range from substantive books on magic to pamphlets containing individual poems (one of these, titled “Tyrol”, is a condemnation of…