COSMIC DEBRIS: The Doctrine of Moles

Perhaps two lesser know fields of fortune telling, beauty marks and metoposcopy!

From The Encyclopedia of Ancient and Forbidden Knowledge, by Zolar! Courtesy Popular Library, 1970.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANCIENT AND FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE by Zolar

Here's a hefty tome that promises the COMPLETE guide to the occult, from Zolar ... of course! It's a mite more impressive than previous guides we've looked at, with Zolar offering a crash course in everything from crystal gazing to the Kabbalah. The handy table of contents gives the full rundown of what to expect.

As a neophyte to these occult practices, I'm practically bowled over by the density of text. Fortunately some quick googling reveals part of Zolar's secret - plagiarism! Over at the blog Learning Curve on the Ecliptic, commenter Stella had this to say:

As a teenager, I had Bruce King's (aka Zolar's) "The Encyclopedia of Ancient and Forbidden Knowledge" - one of those catch-all books with chapters on astrology, numerology, Tarot, etc.

Being young, I was very impressed with it. A friend and I even referred to it as "The Book", lol.

In later years, however, more books became available via the net. I can see now, for instance, that Zolar's crystal gazing chapter was cobbled together from bits of "A Course of Advanced Lessons in Clairvoyance and Occult Powers" by the wonderful C. Alexander (under the pseudonym "Swami Panchadasi", lol) John Melville's "Crystal Gazing and the Wonders of Clairvoyance". Entire passages are lifted almost word-for-word from both books.

It's possible that King was under pressure from the publisher to write an "occult encyclopedia", and his astrology writings may be his own, since that was his area of expertise. But I wouldn't be surprised to see them someplace else, in older books.

Stella has her own blog on card reading and fortune telling called Fate Keeps on Happening, which I recommend for her strong, eclectic perspective. You never know what you might miss if not for someone else's experience! I'll continue to dive into Zolar's encyclopedia and post excerpts as relevant in future. In the mean time, don't take any wooden nickels or xeroxed horoscopes!

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Popular Library, 1970

AN OCCULT DICTIONARY compiled by Howard V. Chambers

An occult dictionary for the millions! Chambers warns us in the forward that this is NOT to be a definitive volume, and thank goodness he does. If you don't already know your Zabulon from your Zaebos you'd be in a peck of trouble if you had to reach for this book in the middle of a ritual! To wit: the entry for Zabulon  leaves out the demon's Biblical namesake. The focus on "parapsychology" on the cover is also odd, considering the entries obviously cover all manner of occult fields.

Occult dictionaries and encyclopedias hit it big in the midcentury. No longer dusty grimoires or specialty texts, you could find plentiful ads for these books in Fate magazine and within other paperbacks, often as enticement for book club memberships:

From a 1969 paperback

From Fate, 1973

From Fate, 1973

From now on any such text will be tagged under Guide, and no need to summon Verdelet.

An Occult Dictionary is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1966

COSMIC DEBRIS: Zolar's Tarot Fortune Telling Cards

From Zolar ... of course! An in-depth overview of this strange bit of arcana is available at the Aeclectic Tarot forum by user Laura Borealis. Some pictures from an online listing:

Curious about Zolar himself? A little detective work yields the man behind the name:

From Fate, Volume 26 - Number 11, November 1973.

COSMIC DEBRIS: Occult Encyclopedias

Whither Zolar? A pull-out ad from The Lost Continent of Mu by James Churchward. Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1972.