Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult

Richard Metzger

Red Wheel Weiser, Jan 1, 2003 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 353 pages

Disinformation’s "wicked warlock" Richard Metzger gathers an unprecedented cabal of modern occultists, magicians, and forward thinkers in this large format Disinformation Guide. Just as Russ Kick’s Guides focusing on secrets and lies from the mainstream media, government, and other establishment institutions rethought what a political science book could look like and whom it would appeal to, Book of Lies redefines occult anthologies, packaging and presenting a huge array of magical essays for a pop culture audience. Just some of the contents:

An introduction by comics genius Grant Morrison, who also contributes a three-part article on Pop Magick.Mark Pesce, author of The Playful World, compares computer programming and spellcasting.Genesis P-Orridge, father of Industrial Music and Rave culture explains how samples in a rave song can have magical consequences.Paul Laffoley discusses his magical artistic strategies (Metzger compares Laffoley to Merlin the Magician).Magical Thinking—an extended excerpt from Daniel Pinchbeck’s Breaking Open the Head.William Burroughs and the occult.Nevill Drury, Australia’s most noted occult writer, tells of Dion Fortune, Austin Spare, and Rosaleen Norton.Why Does Aleister Crowley Still Matter?Donald Tyson’s "The Enochian Apocalypse Working." Were the seeds of the end of the world sown in the Elizabethan era?.The first ever biographical essay on Marjorie Cameron, the fascinating character from Los Angeles’ occult and beatnik scene.Hitler and the occult—Peter Levenda interview by Tracy Twyman.Robert Temple on how his book The Sirius Mystery’s, controversial thesis (for which he was ridiculed) was proven by the Hubble telescope twenty-five years late.An exclusive Anton LaVey interview by Michael Moynihan, author of best-selling book Lords of Chaos.Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis, looks at H. P. -Lovecraft’s Magick Realism.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - adamwolf - LibraryThing

Heh. Grant Morrison's Pop Magic was pretty good. The Jack Parsons essay was pretty good. I didn't really like the rest of it, unfortunately. "Psychedelic mushrooms are aliens, which let us get on the Intergalactic Internet."

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - nazgul.sp - LibraryThing

Many clever texts and interesting ideas in this mixed bag. The text "Pop Magic" by Grant Morrison and "Are You illuminated ?" by Phil Hine are the most insightful. Apart from Magic (or Magick) stuff, this book is packed with unconventional ideas and points of view that are worth knowing.

About the author

Richard Metzger is a co-founder of The Disinformation Company and wrote, directed, and hosted the first two seasons of the Disinformation TV series, which initially aired on Britain’s Channel 4 network. The series has been licensed to a major cable network in the United States, and a DVD of the series is planned and will be co-marketed with the book.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult; Disinformation Guides
• Editor: Richard Metzger
• Contributor: Grant Morrison
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser, 2003
• ISBN: 097139427X, 9780971394278
• Length: 353 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / General; Religion / Spirituality; Social Science / Popular Culture