20th century

This Ritual Mask, currently housed in Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall, belonged to Alex Sanders, also known as Verbius, who was an English occultist and High Priest in the Pagan religion of Wicca.

During his black magic period, he got a job at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. An accusation that he defecated in the library basement led to the discovery that stole pages from a 19th century edition of the S.L Mathers translation of the ‘Key of Solomon’. Image: Ethan Doyle White CC-BY-SA

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The Prophecies of Paracelsus is a book with 32 prophecies, each with a woodcut full of symbolism to expand on it. The prophecies are cryptic and vague, with much allegorical symbolism, and can be easily reinterpreted to apply to any situation. Source: Wellcome Library


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Henry Wellcome commissioned this watercolor from R. Cooper in 1912, depicting an unconscious man being attacked by demons with surgical instruments. The painting is meant to represent the effects of chloroform on the human body. Source: The Wellcome Collection

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The Goetic Circle of Black Evocations and Pacts, to summon Satan for a deal. The circle is formed from human skin, fastened by nails from a coffin of an executed criminal. A parricide’s skull, goat horns, a bat drowned in blood, and the head of a black cat who was fed human flesh must be placed around it. From The Book of Black Magic and Pacts, A.E. Waite, 1910. Source: Embassy of the Free Mind


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Art with alchemical symbolism from the book “Au seuil du mystère” by Guy Bechtel’s “Essais de sciences maudites” series, 1915. The title and series name translates to “On the Threshold of Mystery (Essays of the damned sciences 1)”. Source: Embassy of the Free Mind.

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Depiction of an unscrupulous practitioner of black magic from “Le serpent de la Genèse” (The Serpent of Gensis) Volume 2, by Stanislas de Guaita, 1920.. The book describes this type of sorcerer as desecrating the sacred science of magick for the purposes of tyranny, personal gratification, disorder, crime, and intimidation. Source: Embassy of the Free Mind.


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A wild witches’ sabbath from the book of black magic, “Le serpent de la Genèse” (The Serpent of Gensis) Volume 2, by Stanislas de Guaita, 1920. Source: Embassy of the Free Mind


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