Magic by Return of Post: How Mail Order Delivered the Occult

(publicdomainreview.org)

19 points | by Vigier 1 day ago

3 comments

  • rfarley04 1 hour ago
    Ha, I was just researching early email newsletter history and came across High Weirdness By Mail - A Directory of The Fringe: Mad Prophets, Crackpots, Kooks & True Visionaries. It's literally just subscription addresses and paragraph summaries like

    > "A neo-pagan publication aimed mainly at neophytes, shamans, medicine men. And women...Drawing on numerous traditions, it provides almost a survey course in such diverse topics as astrology, runecasting, elemental (magic) the I Ching, > and Chinese medicine, 75¢ each, $8/year."

    https://archive.org/details/highweirdnessbym0000stan

  • nyeah 1 hour ago
    Harness the power of Bayes' Theorem to achieve your personal goals!
  • rdevilla 38 minutes ago
    Almost 10 years ago, I used to have materials delivered from the Builders of the Adytum to my door in Little Portugal. They were bulky letters with a rather striking sender address.

    Torontonians obliged themselves by opening these letters, multiple times, out of a communal mailbox, to see what they were all about. This is an indictable offence in Canada, but neither common decency nor the rule of law actually exist in this country so that's ok.

    ... Unless, of course, you are Portugese - then the law is fully on your side, as a Canadian white.