Why read Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare?

Book cover of Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare

Book description

Images and Oracles remains one of the most influential works on esoteric magick and mystical art produced in the last thirty years. Part One discusses Spare's life and biographical anecdotes while Part Two provides Kenneth Grant' important analysis and co

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Why read it?

1 author picked Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Phil Baker

Author

This is an unreliable but very readable book from occult writer Kenneth Grant. I used to find the title mysterious; it really means images and oracular worlds, and I remember seeing great heaps of this book remaindered in the 1980s, little knowing it would go on to fetch £300 a copy. Fortunately, Fulgur have since produced an affordable edition.

Grant’s depiction of Spare is heavily influenced by his reading of popular fiction writers like Arthur Machen, Sax Rohmer, and H.P. Lovecraft, and he gives us Spare, the black magician seduced in childhood by an elderly witch, who launches “an amphibious…

From Phil's list on The best books about Austin Osman Spare.